Debut novel just published ...but i love you, a racy, funny, challenging story of sexual identity. Juggling my headspace with another emerging novel,and my lovely son's unique take on the world.

Monday, 19 March 2018

Beloved Aspie and Cats

The cat obsession probably starts with me. I
had my first kitten when I was five years old. I loved it but when it went bananas
and started running up and down the curtains and all those naughty things that
kittens do (which was called fleeping in our house) I was terrified. So the
little kitten didn’t stay long.

I didn’t
have cats again until I was pregnant and poorly and was going to have to give
up work earlier than I planned. So I was given two kittens to keep me company
and perhaps to prepare me for the responsibility of having a child! As the
pregnancy progressed the kittens used to love to jump on my bed in the morning
and as the baby woke up and started moving they would jump on the quilt and try
to catch him.

Sadly
although I lived in the country I was near a main road and those kittens didn’t
last long either.

The next
came along when Beloved Aspie was nearly 4. He was a bit lively, too lively for
the little cat, who moved next door with an elderly lady and a quieter home. He
minded very much that the cat wouldn’t come home. It was around this time that
the first traits of Asperger's syndrome appeared. Now some people will tell you
that people with Asperger’s have no empathy and struggle with emotional
connection with other people. They don’t find it easy to read facial cues or
emotional cues. And this can lead to frustration and anger which in turn is
misunderstood. But let me say this, just because Aspies struggle to show their
emotions doesn’t mean they don’t have them.

I guess this
was when I realised that I could use his obsession with cats to our advantage.
I say obsession I think mean more of a fascination. My son loves everything
about them, how they look, hi they behave, their cultural representation, their
mythological status, their deity status in ancient Egyptian culture. While I
did say everything.

So when we
moved to Somerset, and lived in the country with a big garden, it was time to
renew our relationship with cats. We got two sisters and one of them adopted Beloved
Aspie from the outset. She followed him everywhere. She loved nothing better than
to stand at the foot of the stairs and listen to where she might find him. He
loved that cat. He would spend hours in the garden playing with her. And he
loved nothing better than to regale anyone with stories of latest antics. To
our shock and sadness, she was run over. He was traumatised. But I used all of
these experiences to help him explore his emotions. We talked about how much he
loved his little animal and how much joy and happiness she brought to his daily
life. In turn we were able to talk about loss and pain. And we took that topic
into the wider world of losing friends, relations and people we love.

Over these
last few years our cat family has become three. And these days Beloved Aspie
knows that they are his responsibility. He feeds them, he checks where they are
to make sure they are getting outside exercise, he gives them all loads of lap
time and loads of love. And I still use them as strategies in life. When I collect
him from work in Bridgwater, if he looks a bit tired or grumpy, I start cat
stories. I tell him what each of them have been doing during the day, what bed
they slept on, who they tried to scratch, whether they tried to chase the ducks.
It never fails to get him smiling and engaged in a conversation. And that’s a big
hint actually, if you do have an Aspie in your world and you see them
struggling to have a conversation or to start a conversation, use their
obsession. Anyone can start a conversation with my son if they start with cats.

The only
problem is this cat obsession is a bit infectious. When my husband and I are
out on our own, we have been known to spot a random cat in the street and say ‘oh
look it’s a cat’. Then we shake our heads at one another. And if we spot
anything in a shop window that has a cat on it it’s always ‘ I know who’d like
that.’

One day my
son asked my husband what is the ideal number of cats? We reckon he was angling
for another one, you know, maybe bring it up to even numbers. So my husband
said one. That should keep him quiet… for now.